1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an apparatus and method for recording images for a vehicle, and more particularly, to an apparatus and method for recording images for a vehicle using On Board Diagnostic (OBD) information.
2. Description of the Related Art
Black boxes are used in aircrafts and in other vehicles such as cars. The vehicle black box records information about driving states and accidents for use in accurate assessments of vehicle accident conditions.
With the increasing popularity of mobile terminals, such as smart phones or tablet Personal Computers (PCs), navigation software and/or black box software in the mobile terminals is being substituted for conventional vehicle navigators or black boxes.
Generally, black box software loaded on a mobile terminal supports continuous video recording or event-triggered video recording. In a continuous video recording scheme, once the black box function is started, video is continuously recorded, regardless of whether an event occurs, and if the video recording exceeds a limited memory capacity of the mobile terminal, old images are overwritten with new ones. In an event-triggered video recording scheme, only when an event is sensed, i.e., when a gyro sensor installed on the mobile terminal senses a vehicle collision, a video is recorded.
Because old images are erased in time order when the limited memory capacity is exceeded in a conventional mobile terminal, images recorded during a vehicle accident may be overwritten in the continuous video recording scheme.
Further, although images are not erased in the event-triggered video recording scheme, this recording scheme depends entirely on sensed results of the gyro sensor, with no regard to a number of vehicle states or conditions. Further, images captured in relation to an event, i.e., event images, are stored in a specific memory area. However, if events occur often, certain event images may not be recorded because of the limited capacity of the specific memory area.